Ancillary 2

Introduction to Magazine Front Cover

The second ancillary task that I will complete is to create a magazine front cover that will further advertise my film and star the main character of our piece. Below is an image of a magazine with annotations to show the typical conventions of a front cover which I will be expected to abide by when creating my own.

  

Analysis of Magazine Front Covers

Analysis of Similar texts

Publication:

Entertainment Weekly is produced by the company Timeinc. 'Time Inc., a division of Time Warner, is one of the largest branded media companies in the world. The company engages more than 138 million U.S. consumers in print, online and via mobile devices each month. With influential brands such as TIME, PEOPLE, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, InStyle and Real Simple'.

-http://www.timeinc.com/aboutus/

This means as well as being involved in many different media platforms, the company is also part of the conglomerate that owns Warner Bros, one of the biggest conglomerate film companies. According to http://www.ew.com/ew/static/advertising/circulation.html, an average of 56,934 readers consume media from the magazine company with more women than men reading the magazine ( 5,315 v. 4.235) and the median age of the overall audience is 38. http://www.ew.com/ew/static/advertising/demographics.html

This task will focus on how different elements of a magazine front cover can target a specific audience in relation to the use of camera angles, body language, language and style etc. and how effectively the cover communicates this to the intended audience. The example below is from 'Entertainment Weekly', an American film magazine advertising the film 'Public Enemies'.

Publication:
Empire film magazine is a subsidiary of Bauer Entertainment Magazine and according to  http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/empire, had 160,067 copies of the magazine sold between the months January to June  in 2013. Moreover, the target audience appeals to a younger male audience opposed to a female one with figures showing 77%of readers are male who are aged between 15 and 24.This task will focus on how different elements of a magazine front cover can target a specific audience in relation to the use of camera angles, body language, language and style etc. and how effectively the cover communicates this to the intended audience. The example below is from 'Empire Magazine'  advertising the film 'Transformers 2'.

-http://magazines.bauermediaadvertising.com/magazines/detail/empire

Style File

Above is a mood board of magazines that would relate to my target audience. I chose these particular covers as they fit the layout and house style I hope to create when I come to actually making my own front cover.
Although my target audience are young females aged around 16-20 and a young female girls, I decided to go for covers that had more neutral colours like light blue and white opposed to the typical pastel and vibrant colours most commonly found on magazine front covers. This is because if my magazine is going to be on a film magazine, I feel as if the front page must replicate themes with feature within the film. As my film is a drama thriller, colours like blue and white will suit both genres and as my titles in my teaser trailer are blue, I will have been consistent in my house style in both products. To ensure my target audience is efficiently targeted, I may choose to include a pastel colour in a colour like purple so the gender of my audience is specifically established as well as relating to aspects of the film.

Ideas Mindmap

House Style

Colour scheme: 

I tried to stay consistent with the use of colour in all my projects, making sure I have maintained a similar house style. Not only do the blue white and grey relate to the colours that appear in my teaser trailer, they also attract a male audience. This is necessary as even though my target audience relates to young females, more males tend to read film magazines in general in comparison to females meaning it is necessary not to isolate the gender. However, to make sure that my female audience is properly identified, I have included the purple to make sure they are attracted to the magazine, as they are primarily, the audience I want to target the most.

Fonts:

Again, like with the colour scheme, I tried to pick fonts that wouldn't repel/isolate men, however I have picked fonts that sway more to the female side in appearance. This is because they are more curved/flicked but no to the point where they are considered purely 'girly'. As my target audience is more likely to be diverse due to their age, they aren't likely to go for fonts that are too feminine which would appeal more to a younger audience. When looking at the above image, I will most likely use the bold fonts for the masthead and cover lines and thinner fonts for the anchorage text.

Draft Layouts

Written Content

In order to allow me to be able to create my magazine front cover effectively, I will need to plan out the written content that will be included on my magazine front cover so I will have less to organise and think about when I come to actually creating the piece, thus making the task far easier.

Masthead

The masthead of my magazine will be 'The View' as it relates to the film industry in relation on what to watch and is also more feminine which will appeal to my target audience as well. It is also important to include the issue date of the magazine to make the cover seem more professional and would hopefully attract an audience willing to subscribe and catch every issue

Main Cover line and Anchorage text

The main cover line needs to relate to my film that I am advertising, therefore I chose the title 'Idenity: Who's watching you?" Not only does the rhetorical question include the audience, but it presents the mystery element of stalking in my film and the convention of mystery in the thriller genre and presents mystery   (which relates to Barthes enigma code).

The anchorage text that will accompany the main cover line will read 'Amy Bianchi reveals all about her upcoming role in the most anticipated film of the year'. This ties in nicely with the cover line and will relate well with the main image of the actress, leaving the audience wanting to know more.

Additional Cover lines:

I plan to include two cover lines, the first will read  'Who has 'the view' in 2014' with the anchorage text 'Find out the top up-and-coming films of this year so far'. By including my magazine name in the text, the play on words promotes the magazine but highlights the idea of an exclusive insight without isolating the preview to a certain gender. My second cover line will say 'Jennifer Lawrence talks American Hustle' with the anchorage text 'Our favourite Hunger Games star on her new role' This will appeal to my target audience as she has a large female fanbase yet the film is  a crime drama which would also attract a male audience.

Flash: 

The flash I plan to include in my piece will revolve around sharing an experience with friends as my target audience will be particularly sociable. Therefore I will include a flash along the line of 'your chance to win the ultimate cinema experience for you and a friend' or offer a free product. This is because my target audience will be students or not have a huge income meaning free experience/items will appeal more.

Photo manipulation:

First Draft:

Second Draft:

Third Draft:

Magazine Photo Manipulation: Take 2

Further Magazine Improvements: Adobe Indesign from Kirst_

Final draft entry post: 17/4/14

Today I made the final edits to my piece to ensure it was to a higher standard than before. The most evident changes I made was aligning the text in the cover lines to make them look more conventional to a standard cover. I also adjusted the cove rline that sat in the middle of the page to the bottom and edited the size to make the piece, again, more conventional and aesthetically pleasing.